‘Woke’ is just basic courtesy
President-elect Trump and the Republican Party have declared war on “woke,” but what does it mean to be “woke?”
A long time ago, I told a joke to some co-workers, one that had always gotten a decent laugh. The punchline involved a large number of Hispanics packing the back of a pickup truck, and since the joke didn’t really say anything derogatory about those Hispanics, it wasn’t racist, right?
This time, however, the joke only got a small chuckle. My co-workers at that time were Hispanic. They asked, “Why did the joke need the people in the back of the truck to be Hispanic?” I explained that typically when you see a pickup truck full of people heading somewhere, it’s Hispanic workers heading for a job. They acknowledged that but didn’t see it as being particularly funny; some of their friends worked as day laborers to support themselves and their families, because it was often difficult to get a “regular” job due to language barriers.
Some might say that I should have just refrained from telling my joke in front of people who might be offended, but I’ve chosen to just not tell jokes like that regardless of who is listening. I prefer puns these days, because with puns, the fun of the joke is with the words themselves. I can still get good laughs, mixed with inevitable groans, without worrying about who’s listening.
Republicans would call me woke for all this and mean it in a derogatory way—but my mom would be proud. Being “woke” is about basic courtesy to our fellow human beings. It’s about realizing that I am, for the most part, ignorant of much of the day-to-day realities of my fellow Americans for the simple reason that I’m not them. It’s about realizing that if you can’t tell a joke in front of everyone, you probably should not tell the joke at all. Being woke, in my mind and experience, is a good thing. It’s divisiveness and hate that we should really be worried about.
“Woke,” i.e., being cognizant of the world around us, for today’s Republican Party is a derogatory term, but the alternative, “ignorant,” can’t be an acceptable way for Americans to move about in the world. Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance is ignorance.
Michel Rottmann, Virginia City Highlands
Another remembrance of Robert Morrison
I met Robert not through art but racing sports cars (“Remembering Robert Morrison,” RN&R, December 2024). He was an avid collector and racer of Porsches, of which he had many, as well as an Audi or two. It was only years into knowing him that I learned he was an artist.
He was a delightful human with a quick wit and a smile. I was fortunate to see his work at the Nevada Museum of Art where the use of sound was incorporated into almost all of the pieces displayed. He was clearly a remarkable person. We miss him.
Stephen Jackson, Via RenoNR.com
Will Dems get blame for GOP fails?
Am I the only person who firmly believes that every future failure of the Trump administration will be blamed by MAGA, the GOP, and right-wing media on the Democrats? (“Voters are about to get what we collectively wanted—and we may not like it,” RN&R, December 2024)? I’m sorry to say, they’ll get away with it.
Roger Scime, Via RenoNR.com
Correction
In the aforementioned “Remembering Robert Morrison” piece, we reported that Tamara Scronce was once chair of the art department at the University of Nevada, Reno. She is a former professor who served as area head of sculpture and director of the School of the Arts, but she did not serve as the art department’s chair. We apologize for the error.